The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1878.

Kumara Times, Issue 586, 13 August 1878, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1878.

That tenebrious luminary the “ New i Zealand Sun” has, in its wisdom, taken j us to task for a paragraph tint ap peared in these columns a short time ago relative to the New Licensing Bill ■aid the Press Agency. In drawing attention to this subject, we wrote as i follows: The licensed victuallers of ■ this town will see by an article that j appears in another column under the ! heading of “ The New Licensing Bill | and the Pre?s Agency” that they have j to thank that department for the scare

produced by the telegrams that have lately appeared relative to the New Licensing Bill. Our contemporary, in commenting on this, says :—“ Needless almost it is to say that our bucolic, friend is all astray in the matter, and that this “ authoritative” statement of his, addressed to the local members of the Trade, is as wrong as wrong can be. The clauses re adulteration, circulated by the Press Agency, were copied by their Wellington. manager from the draft manuscript of part of the Licensing Bill actually written in the Minister of Justice’ office. This manuscript was stolen, or at all events, converted to improper uses, by an official then in th« Hon. Mr Sheehan’s confidence, who has since been dismissed from Service.” ' wjS Our contemporary is evidently sufs fering under an eclipse, or more probably he is one of the Southern journals which the New Zealauder—a ministerial organ and an undoubted authority on this subject—thus refers to : “ Several of our southern contemporaries have a second time been sold by the Press Agency, and have jumped at the conclusion that the telegram purporting to describe certain provisions of the new Licensing Bill, correctly represented the intentions of the Government, It did nothing of the kind. As a matter of fact we can repeat the statement we made a few days ago, that not a single danse of the Licensing Bill I has yet been drafted for the consideration of the Cabinet. One of the evening j papers here (Wellington) published the ; alleged resume of the pro visions ot the i Bill ! how obtained it is difficult to imagine, unless the writer had been hoaxed by some unscrupulous person ; and a few days afterwards the other evening paper copied the informution, j apparently on its contemporary’s an- j thority. The Press Agency no doubt | thought the statements of the two > papers of sufficient importance to tele- | graph, and the result is that papers j elsewhere have expended a great deal of j unnecessary indignation over this question.” We have but little doubt our contemporary is included in this category, and that ho has been sold—undeniably sold —over this matter. These j exciting bill stealing incidents, especially 1 when in ministerial quarters, prove a j valuable acquisition to his columns j abounding as they do in sensational matter, and under these circumstances he may be pardoned for giving them publicity. In conclusion, we may point out that a New Licensing Bill, with provisions of a far. different nature to that promulgated by the Press Agency—from the draft manuscript—will be | shortly submitted to the House, and our contemporary will then probably discover that the scai’e amongst the licensed victuallers to which we alluded was, as we previously slated, groundless. !